The Escalator
Inspired by The Bondage of the Will by Martin Luther
You’re on a dark escalator, alone, going down.
The glasses you’re wearing are blacked out except for a pinhole in the middle of each lens that allows you to see through…dimly.
At the bottom of this escalator, you see bright signs for a food court, candy store, arcade, spa, clothing and all your favorite stores and activities. You see advertisements with all your favorite movie stars and celebrities inviting you to come and enjoy yourself.
You can take steps forward or backward, but you can’t turn around and you’re always moving down. At first, you start running down, you can’t wait to get there. You’re moving down fast, fixated on the goal, but you don’t seem to be getting any closer.
All you want is to go down, but you can’t tell when you’ll arrive.
As you go, sometimes choosing to run, sometimes to walk, sometimes choosing to be still and enjoy the ride, you see faint lights whipping passed.
You turn to the side to get a closer look. As you do, the signs below come to life and penetrate your ears and thoughts. They’re inviting you, reminding you of what’s waiting, but the light draws your attention to the side.
You notice the walls next to each side of this escalator are mirrored, and the light now hovering over your head illuminates the reflection. At first, you must squint to see through, but you notice the more you look into this mirror, the pinholes start to get bigger, and you see more and more clearly.
You start to notice things, things about yourself.
Your eyes are sunken, you’re pale, hair’s falling out and there are sores all over your body. Not only are you hideous, but you’re sick.
Armed with this knowledge, it preoccupies your attention. You’re impending destination starts to lose its appeal. The ads are still enticing, still incessant, but now you can’t help but juxtapose their allure with your predicament.
All the while you continue down.
You keep checking the mirror and when you do, the glasses become clear. The pinhole ever widening, but it only illuminates your deteriorating condition.
You feel hopeless… longing for a cure.
You cry out,
What good is the destination, if this track I’m on is going to kill me?! To hell with the destination and its impotent ads. All they do is entice, but they never satisfy. Look at me! Look at me! The more I go, the worse I get, and these ads won’t stop. They’re in my face, they’re in my ears, they’re in my mind. But now, I see them for what they are …not a promise of pleasure to come, not a cure for my putrid state, but distraction, a diversion from ever contemplating… escape.
Escape? Is it possible?
…A cure? Could there be?
Surely the mirror
is hiding more for me.
Mirror, mirror,
on the wall,
Tell me how,
I avoid my fall.
In this rancid
state I sit,
With no hope
for me to get.
My eyes are bleeding,
My hair receding,
My skin retreating,
My mind is fleeting,
All the while my heart is bleating,
“Have pity on me!”
Show me now,
how to change my fate,
For on my path,
is a sorry state.
Surly, I
can do great things,
To change my position
as it seems.
But what do I do,
and who can I pay?
To cleanse me anew,
and send me on my way?
To my surprise, an answer awaited, and it came from my light, …who didn’t hold back.
Who are you,
that you should offer to do,
What no man can bear,
and never see through?
Who are you,
that you should offer to pay,
For a disease you incurred,
and can’t wash away?
Who are you,
who could not see,
Past your own indulgent pleasure,
if it were not for me?
I AM the light,
that came here for you,
I give you sight,
that you might see true.
It’s only through me,
that your fate can be changed.
To light a new path,
and your heart rearrange.
So, come follow me,
and look back no more.
I’ll give you life,
and I’ll be your cure.
With my head spinning and heart pounding, I had but one response; for I knew my sorry state of affairs.
I’m on a track to nowhere.
I create the illusion of pleasure.
I’m sick.
I can’t change my path.
I need help.
With a quiver I muster a humble response to my newfound friend…
“I accept!”
All at once my motion stopped.
I had been on this escalator for so long that stillness was disorienting, and I hate to admit that I fell on my face. Rising to my feet, wearing glasses no more, I was confused, because what once could not be, I now did with ease.
I turned around.
As I did, I consulted the mirror to check out my state. To my surprise, I looked just as sick and feeble as I did before. With one minor change. The light had entered my eyes and my motion was reversed.
I now traveled up and as I progressed, my appearance began to clear. The more I went up, the better I felt. I learned I could run up and back, but again could never turn around.
The light lit my path and stayed with me as we traveled to a new destination. But now, the destination wasn’t so much the goal, because it was the new path and new friend that seemed to satisfy.
I asked him where we were going, so we concluded with this:
This little light of mine,
Tell me, to where we climb?
We seem to be,
in a different state.
No more descending,
to a hopeless fate.
But alas, we still hear,
the alluring call,
Of pleasure so tempting,
to once I gave all.
Tell me now,
to where we go,
And when we’ll be healed,
and sickness let go.
I did get an answer,
and for once I’m content,
Because he told me all,
for what I am meant.
We were meant to be together,
from the beginning of time,
I’m what completes you,
but you committed a crime.
You turned away,
from all that is good,
You gave yourself over,
to naught that you should.
It saddened my heart,
you rejected my path,
Choosing yourself,
You incurred my just wrath.
I love you too much,
to force you to choose,
What comes to you freely,
and never can lose.
My friendship and healing,
I give to you now,
That you have accepted the only,
help to be found.
This is good news,
and together we’ll be,
Healing on this journey,
forever you’ll see.
“For by the law comes, not righteousness, but knowledge of sin. This is the fruit, the work, the office of the law: it is a light to the ignorant and blind, but one that displays disease, sin, evil, death, hell and the wrath of God. It does not help nor set them free from these things; it is content merely to point them out. When a man discovers the sickness of sin, he is cast down and afflicted, nay he despairs. The law does not help him; much less can he heal himself. Another light is needed to reveal a remedy. This is the voice of the gospel, which displays Christ as the Deliverer from all these evil things.” - Martin Luther, The Bondage of the Will
